Northern Ireland: Disabled Facilities Grant

Lord Maginnis of Drumglass: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What backlog there is in the number of applications from ill or elderly and infirm householders who have applied to the Housing Executive for adaption grants and dealt with by occupational therapists (a) in terms of average time to complete their enquiries; and (b) in respect of the number of current applications over three months old in the following areas—
	(i) Cookstown;
	(ii) Dungannon;
	(iii) Fermanagh; and
	(iv) Omagh Council.

Baroness Amos: Fermanagh council area is covered by the Housing Executive's Fermanagh Grants Office. Cookstown, Dungannon and Omagh council areas are covered by the Omagh Grants Office.
	All applications to the Housing Executive for disabled facilities grants must be supported by a recommendation from an occupational therapist (OT).
	Once a recommendation has been received, the grants office can issue the schedule of works, listing those items of work for which grant aid may be available. The applicant then has six months to complete a statutory application, which includes obtaining any necessary statutory approvals, getting estimates from builders and getting working drawings prepared. Once the statutory application has been completed, the Housing Executive is required to issue the formal approval within six months.
	The Fermanagh and Omagh Grants Offices are currently issuing approvals for disabled facilities grant within the six month timescale. In the Fermanagh office area, approvals for disabled facilities grant are being issued, on average, within 25 weeks and in the Omagh office area the average time is 22 weeks.
	At the end of November 2004, the Fermanagh office had 74 OT requests outstanding for more than three months and the Omagh office had 137 OT requests outstanding for more than three months.
	The Housing Executive is currently carrying out a review of the disabled facilities grant process and hopes to speed up the process during 2005.

Orphans and Street Children

Lord Hylton: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What funds they are allocating in the current financial year and the coming two years, through the Department for International Development or otherwise, for the direct benefit of orphans and street children; and how grants will be divided between the five continents.

Baroness Amos: The Government's international development policy is focused on achieving the internationally agreed millennium development goals (MDGs). DfID links the classification of its expenditure to the MDGs, not to expenditure on particular groups. It is therefore not possible at present to identify the total amount spent on programmes for the direct benefit of orphans and street children.
	In the UK strategy on HIV and AIDS, launched in July 2004, the Government committed themselves to fund action that prioritises women, young people and vulnerable groups. DfID will ensure that it spends at least £150 million over three years from 2005–08 on programmes to meet the needs of orphans and other children, particularly those in Africa, made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. DfID is adjusting its statistical systems to enable it to monitor expenditure against the £150 million target.
	Africa is the first priority, as it is the region of the world worst affected and most at risk of HIV and AIDS. Over the next three years some £123 million will go to countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
	DfID will step up its support in Asia too. It is currently in the process of developing its response at country and regional levels and expects to spend at least £4 million through its country programmes and £1 million through a regional approach through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
	DfID will be allocating resources to research on vulnerable children. It has just agreed £2.4 million support for a five-year programme of research into ways of providing anti-retroviral treatment to children with HIV where resources are limited. This will be undertaken in a number of countries in Africa.
	Children and young people are frequently vulnerable because of poverty in their communities. DfID takes the view that we also have to tackle the wider economic and social problems that make them vulnerable to ending up on the street or at risk of exploitation and abuse. DfID's goal is the eradication of poverty and most of the programmes it supports are intended to contribute to improving the livelihoods of poor people and helping them realise their rights. Working with overseas partners, both international organisations and the governments of developing countries themselves, to eliminate poverty is in the long run likely to be more effective than individual small projects. Much of DfID's other expenditure, for example on increased access to safe water and sanitation, improving slum dwellers' lives and promoting environmental sustainability, will also benefit vulnerable children directly or indirectly.
	DfID has also provided support through multilateral agencies; for example, the UK contributed a total of £64 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in 2003. DfID has also supported the International Labour Organisation's work to combat child labour and child trafficking. For example, DfID has committed some £8.9 million in total over the decade 1999–08 to the ILO's International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) for work in the Greater Mekong region (parts of Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam).
	DfID also provides support through civil society organisations: a four-year Partnership Programme Agreement (PPA) was agreed between DfID and Save the Children Fund in 2001 to support their work on eliminating poverty and advocating for children's rights and greater equity. The PPA is worth £20.72 million. DfID is also contributing £1.7 million from 2003–05 to the Greater Mekong Child Trafficking project through Save the Children. This is linked to the IPEC programme and to a World Vision project to reduce the number of women, young people and children trafficked for sex work or other forms of exploitative labour within Burma and from Burma to Thailand. DfID is contributing £235,000 to the World Vision project from 2002–06.

Small Arms

Lord Judd: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What proportion of the Global Pool on Conflict Resolution has been devoted to work on small arms issues in each of the past five years; what proportion will be so devoted in each of the next five years; and within these global figures, what percentage the funding has been or will be devoted to Africa.

Baroness Amos: The Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) strategy was established in 2001 with the creation of the Global Conflict Prevention Pool (GCPP). The recent Spending Review (SR) 2004 provided the allocation of funding for 2005–06 to 2007–08 (please see the table below).
	Funding for the GCPP beyond 2007–08 will be determined by the next SR in 2006. The allocation of funds for individual strategies within the GCPP for 2007–08 and 2008–09 will also take place in 2006.
	
		
			  Total GCPP expenditure (DfID/FCO/MoD) SALW expenditure SALW expenditure as percentageof GCPP expenditure 
			 2001–02 £40.8 million £3.4 million 8.3 per cent 
			 2002–03 £65.6 million £6.4 million 9.8 per cent 
			 2003–04 £88.3 million £8.1 million 9.2 per cent 
			 2004–05 £96.4 million (forecast) £5.4 million (forecast) 8.1 per cent. (forecast) 
			 2005–06 £79.7 million (forecast) £4.0 million (forecast) 5.0 per cent. (forecast) 
			 2006–07 £71 million (forecast) £3.3 million (forecast) 4.7 per cent. (forecast) 
		
	
	Over the four years in which the pool has been in existence, approximately 20 per cent of SALW projects have been exclusively dedicated to work in Africa. However, a further 70 per cent of funds have been used to support projects with a global reach. This makes it difficult to give precise figures for the extent to which the SALW strategy has funded work in Africa.
	For example, the Global Pool Strategy funds the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and has committed £l.3 million to date. IANSA works with approximately 550 civil society organisations worldwide. The purpose of their project is to increase political commitment, raise public awareness and co-ordinate global action to effect policy change in tackling small arms proliferation and misuse.
	Although the SALW strategy has been allocated funds for the financial years 2005–06 and 2006–07, those funds have not yet been allocated to specific projects in Africa or elsewhere.

Northern Ireland: Smoking in Public Places

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What plans they have to ban smoking in places of entertainment and in places where food is prepared or consumed in Northern Ireland.

Baroness Amos: On 21 December 2004, the Government announced their consultation on the options for strengthening existing controls on tobacco use in Northern Ireland. The options, which were set out in the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety's new Regional Strategy, A Healthier Future: A Twenty Year Vision for Health and Wellbeing in Northern Ireland, are:
	to encourage greater adoption of smoke-free provision in public places and in workplaces through self-regulation;
	prohibit smoking in most enclosed public places and workplaces, while still allowing smoking in some pubs and bars, other than those preparing and serving food; or
	to ban smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces.
	Comments on the regional strategy, a copy of which has been placed in the House Library, have been invited by 25 March 2005.

Conference of Small Island States, January 2005

Lord Astor of Hever: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they were represented at the Conference of Small Island States convened by the United Nations and held in Mauritius from 10 to 14 January.

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The UK was represented during the high level segment of the Mauritius conference by my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Bill Rammell), supported by a delegation of six officials from the Department for International Development, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the FCO.

Côte d'Ivoire

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What reasons they have been given for the resignation of the head of the United Nations mission in the Côte d'Ivoire.

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The United Nations Secretary-General has given us no specific reasons for Mr Teveodjre's resignation as Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Côte d'Ivoire. However, a spokeswoman for the UN mission said that Mr Teveodjre decided to resign after Ivorian government forces launched a series of air raids on the north of the country and Mr Teveodjre himself is reported to have said that he was leaving to focus on other priorities.

Ministry of Defence: Sourcing of Meat Products

The Countess of Mar: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What was the origin of meat consumed by Ministry of Defence employees in the Ponteland area during the period from January 2000 to February 2001; and where domestic waste from Ministry of Defence establishments was disposed of during this period.

Lord Bach: Food for the Armed Forces is sourced from many countries throughout the world. Of the meat purchased, lamb is sourced from New Zealand, Uruguay, Australia and the United Kingdom. Pork and bacon is sourced from Holland, Denmark and the UK. Chicken is sourced from France, Brazil and the UK. Beef is sourced from Brazil, Uruguay and the UK.
	For the period January 2000 to February 2001 all domestic waste from Ministry of Defence establishments in the Ponteland area was collected and disposed by BIFFA, a waste disposal contractor. The food element of the domestic waste was double bagged by the Ministry of Defence prior to collection.

Trainee Teachers: A-Level Attainment

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the average A-level attainment of entrants to Bachelor of Education courses.

Lord Filkin: The latest data available are shown in the table below. This indicates the average A/AS points score for first-year trainee teachers registered on undergraduate courses leading to qualified teacher status, by the phase they were training to teach:
	
		
			 Year Primary Secondary Key stage 2/3 
			 1998–99 15.6 14.5 14.9 
			 1999–00 15.4 14.7 14.9 
			 2000–01 15.2 14.5 14.2 
			 2001–02 15.6 14.7 12.4 
		
	
	Source:
	Teacher Training Agency

Foundation Bodies: Power to Establish New Secondary Schools

Lord Hanningfield: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they have dropped their plans to give foundation bodies the power to establish new secondary schools.

Lord Filkin: The Government do not think it necessary to give foundation bodies an explicit power to establish new secondary schools and are satisfied that the existing provision for promoters to propose that a new school should belong to a foundation body is sufficient.

Transport Accidents: Memorial Services for Victims

Lord Berkeley: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How many times in the past three years Ministers have attended in their official capacity funerals or memorial services for victims of (a) road accidents; (b) rail accidents; and (c) air accidents.

Lord Davies of Oldham: My honourable friend the Minister of State for Transport (Tony McNulty) attended a memorial service for those killed in the Ufton Nervet rail crash on Wednesday 8 December 2004.